If you look at the sales reports from iTunes Connect, it seems that Apple are taking nearly 40% of the sale price for downloads made in Europe. Of course they claim to take 30% and, indeed, that’s exactly what you see in the US store.

So what’s going on?

The good news is that Apple are not screwing you over. The numbers do add up. The difference is that prices in the US App Store do not include sales tax (VAT) but those in Europe do. This means that before Apple take their 30% cut, they first take off the tax that needs to be paid. If that’s not clear, let’s work through an example.

• The Rise and Fall of the Independent Developer – “My fear is that It’s only a matter of time before developers find the risks and expenses prohibitive and retreat to the safety of a larger organization. We’ll be going back to square one.”
• The Equality and Human Rights Commission’s choice is beyond belief – “But what these cases illustrate is that in certain areas compromise is not possible because the rights of different minorities are mutually exclusive. When one group refuses to fulfil its job description because it disapproves of another group, there is no middle ground, no give and take.”

This weeks PhotoFriday, “Seashore,” was pretty straightforward since I only got back from Rhodes, with its famous beaches, a couple of months ago.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Gloomy.” I’m entry number 149.

As soon as I saw the theme for this weeks challenge, “Gloomy,” I knew which image I needed to use. I took it only a couple of weeks ago on the way to work and is a great representation of the kind of summer we’ve been having so far. Pretty gloomy, eh?

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Sharp Focus.” I’m entry 151.

• Turnabout is fair play – “This is so wonderfully, evilly devious. Superficially, it seems to support creationist methods—but what it actually is is a grand reductio ad absurdam.”
• Google’s Business Model – Who is the customer and what is the product? (via @daringfireball)
• Björk: ‘Manchester is the prototype’ – “Biophilia is the Icelandic singer’s new project – the word means ’love of living things’ – and promises to push the envelope so far you’ll need the Hubble telescope to see it.”

“Sharp Focus” is a surprisingly hard theme to find a good image to represent. A picture that was just sharp wouldn’t look much different from most other pictures. So, ironically, to show something in sharp focus you really need some contrast, namely some background blur. This picture, you can possibly guess, was taken last year at the top of the Eiffel Tower.

I’ve a feeling that I’ve used this picture for at least one PhotoFriday before, but I can’t think of a better image that I’ve taken that says “Wilderness” any better. It was taken in Yosemite from Olmsted Point.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Building.” I’m entry number 226.

Rumour has it that Yahoo! are looking for a new CEO. Some people have been putting their name forward for the role, or at least offering suggestions for Carol Bartz’s successor. This post is in response to Joe Stumps list of ideas.

To be clear, I know that list is not completely serious. I know that he’s not really angling for the CEO role and I understand that many of the options would not be achievable even if they were the best thing for Yahoo! That’s not the point I’m trying to make.

I have plenty of pictures of buildings, so this weeks PhotoFriday theme should have been simple. But finding the building rather than just a building was a little harder than I initially thought it might be. In the end I went for this picture of the Chrysler Building in New York.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Shade.” I’m entry number 166.

Welcome to the British Summer. Taken on my iPhone on Regent Street, just outside the Apple Store, this morning on my way to work.